Sapsucker Sounds is an installation of objects and interactive sound sculptures that offer an opportunity to experience sound generated by a conflation of human and woodpecker culture. The work began with a found log, filled with holes made by a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker. Each sculpture is a different attempt to interpret the marks the bird has “recorded”. Sapsuckers, like other woodpeckers, use their hammering to delineate their territorial range as well as find food. In addition to using hollow trees, they have been known to hammer on metal chimney flashing and road signs, taking advantage of the amplification these introduced items offer. This development in woodpecker culture that can expand an individual bird’s territory highlights the potential for inter-species cultural influence that must apply to human culture as well.

A late addition to the Sapsucker Sounds project, Magic Lantern projects an ever-industrious sapsucker at work, its hammering sounds replaced by the sounds of the sculpture’s mechanisms.